Time-burning railway signal-fusee.



E. C. PFEIL & H. O. BENHSDERFER.

TIME BURNING RARLWAY SIGNAL FUSEE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 29. 1916.

Patented Nov. 21, 1916.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ELMER C. PFEIL, OF FOS'IORIA, OHIO, AND HARVEY 0. BEMISDERFER, OF HAMMOND, INDIANA, ASSIGNORS TO CENTRAL RAILWAY SIGNAL COMPANY, OF PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

TIME-BURNING RAILWAY SIGNAL-FUSEE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 21, 1916.

This invention relates to improvements in time burning railway signal fusees, and the primary object of the invention is the provision of means of a new type for holding the lighting composition within the lighting end of the fusee, and which also serves to hold the chlorate match material in position in the lighting end of the fusee.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1, is a perspective view of the lighting end of a time burning signal fusee with the present improvement applied thereto, the fusee tube broken away to disclose a part of the holding member for the lighting composition. Fig. 2, is a central longitudinal sectional view of the lighting end of a fusee with the present improvement applied thereto. Fig. 3, is a plan view of the woven wire blank from which the holding member is formed. Fig. 4, is a detached perspective view of the holding member after it is shaped to be placed Within the fusee tube.

Time burning railway signal fusees are Well understood by those skilled in this art both as to construction and mode of operation, and a brief reference thereto will be suflicient to enable the present improvement and its application to the fusee to be understood.

Referring now to the drawings in which similar reference characters denote like parts, 1 is the fusee tube, which consists of a tough fiber constructed withthe end in View of standing the shock when thrown from a fast moving train without being broken. In practice it has been found that the tough fiber tubes now in general use are successful in standing the severe uses to which they are subjected without being broken.

It is necessary to provide means for holding the lighting material within the end of the fusee tube. It is also necessary in practice to provide a lighting material. The fusee time burning compound 2 is a slow burning COIIIPOSitlOIl and it is necessary to provide the lighting end of the fusee with a sufficient amount of relatively fast burning lighting material to insure the lighting of the fusee material under all the various conditions to which such fusees are subjected, and this lighting material is known in the practical art as the hard head of the fusee.

It is also Well known to those skilled in this art that fusees are lighted on the safety match principle by providing the lighting end of the fusee with a chlorate lighting stratum or end, which is ignited by frictional contact with a phosphorus composition.

In the drawings the lighting composition or hard head 3 is placed within the end of the fusee tube 1 in plastic form after the time burning composition 2 has been packed within the tube 1 in the usual manner.

The lmrning compound 2 is very tightly and compactly packed within the tube 1 and a space left at the lighting end of the fusee for the lighting material 3, or the tube may be filled with the burning material and afterward drilled or reamed out to form the space for the lighting material.

This improvement comprises a woven wire member 5 which is made in approximate cup-shaped form and forms a top with a depending wall 6 the diameter of the cupshaped member 5 being approximately the same as the internal diameter of the tube. Preferably the member 5 is shaped up from a rectangular or square blank 7 and this blank is cut from the ordinary fine wire mesh material usually known in the trade as wire screens, though the gage of the wire may vary without afi'ecting the invention. When the cup-shaped member 5 is formed from a rectangular or square blank it has depending pointed projections 7 as shown.

In assembling the fusee, the burning compound 2 is packed Within the tube 1 and the lighting compound or hard head 3 is placed within the end of the tube in plastic condition and while still plastic the holding member 5 is inserted within the tube thus inclosing the hard head composition as clearly shown in Fig. 2. This plastic hard head composition is allowed to dry out and an opening is then drilled into the hard head to receive a depending portion of the chlorate match material 9.

The opening 10 in the top of the holding member 5 may be either formed therein before the member is placed within the end of the tube or the opening may be made at the same time that the lighting material is drilled to receive the depending portion of the chlorate match material 9.

Preferably the end of the tube 1 is erimped or spun inward over the top of the holding member 5 as shown at 11 to insure the locking of the holding member within the tube. However, the plastic material 3 spreads through the mesh of the member 5 and interlocks therewith and completely fills the space in the lighting end of the tube so that the lighting member and the holding member will be quite effectively held in position without the inturned portion 11 though the locking of the holding member by the said inturned portion is preferred.

The projecting ends 7 are preferred and they are preferably made of a length to extend to the lower portion of the material 3, but it is to be understood that the pointed ends are not an essential part of the present improvement. In fact the fundamental idea of the present improvement is the provision of a foraminous closure for the end of the tube to hold the lighting material or hard head in position therein.

Heretofore in the practical art, the end of the tube has been closed for this purpose by crimping in the end sufiiciently for that purpose and leaving a central opening for the match material to extend therethrough. Some provision for holding the hard head within the end of the tube is required to prevent it from being thrown or knocked from the end of the fusee when subjected to the shock of being thrown from a rapidly moving train. The fusee being lighted it is thrown before the burning compound 2 is lighted by the hard head, and it is therefore necessary to prevent the hard head from separating from the fusee and thus preventing the igniting of the burning compound 2.

A foraminous holding member for the lighting material brings the match material 9 in contact with the lighting material through the openings of the foraminous closure as well as by the extending portion 8, which is not true where the crimped end is provided for that purpose, because the crimped in end forms a separating wall between the spread out part of the match material 9 and the lighting composition 3. With the foraminous construction the fire of the match material will reach the burn ing material through the openings of the closure as well as through the depending portion of the match material thereby facilitatin the igniting of the lighting material.

aving thus described our invention what we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. An improved time burnin r railway signal fusee, comprising a tube, a urning composition within the tube, a closure extending across the end of the tube outside of the burning material, said member having throughout its surface a plurality of openings, and a plastic match material outside of the closure and interlocking with the walls of the openings therein and communicating through the openings with the burning material, whereby the plastic match material is effectively united to the fusee and the fire thereof effectively communicated through the said openings.

2. An improved time burning railway signal fusee, comprising a tube, a burning compound therein, a plastic lighting head within the end of the tube, a wire mesh closure for the end of the tube and a plastic match material outside of the closure, the said plastic materials interlocking and communieating through the openings of the mesh whereby the match compound is eifectively united to the fusee and the fire thereof effectively communicated to the lighting material.

3. An improved burning railway signal fusee comprising a tube, a burning compound therein, a plastic lighting head within the end of the tube, a wire mesh closure for the end of the tube and extending within the tube around the plastic lighting head, a plastic match material on the outside of the wire mesh closure extending therethrough and communicating with the plastic lighting head, whereby the lighting head extends through the surrounding wire mesh member and in engagement with the inside of the tube, and whereby the lighting head and match material are efiectivcly united to the tube and fire from the match material efi'ectively communicated to the lighting head.

4. An improved time burning railway signal fusee, comprising a tube, a burning compound therein, a plastic lighting head in the end of the tube, a wire mesh closure for the end of'the tube shaped from a rectangular piece of wire mesh constituting an end closure with a wall terminating in pointed ends, the wall and pointed ends surrounding the plastic lighting head, and a plastic match material on the outside of the closure and our signatures in the presence of two Witcommunicating with the lighting head nesses.

through the Wire mesh closure whereb the n x lighting head and match material are Zfiec- 'g gk 5 tively united to the tube and the fire of the match material efiectively communicated to \Vitnesses: the lighting head. ALEXANDER MARKO, In testimony whereof we hereunto afiix WV. NORMAN BUDY. 

